[meteorite-list] Opportunity Mars Rover Arrives at Endeavour Crater

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:29:43 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201108101729.p7AHTh1a021259_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

August 10, 2011

Dwayne C. Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Priscilla Vega/Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-1357/-6278
priscilla.r.vega at jpl.nasa.gov/guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov


RELEASE: 11-265

NASA MARS ROVER ARRIVES AT NEW SITE ON MARTIAN SURFACE

WASHINGTON -- After a journey of almost three years, NASA's Mars
Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet's Endeavour
crater to study rocks never seen before.

On Aug. 9, the golf cart-sized rover relayed its arrival at a location
named Spirit Point on the crater's rim. Opportunity drove
approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) after climbing out of the
Victoria crater.

"NASA is continuing to write remarkable chapters in our nation's story
of exploration with discoveries on Mars and trips to an array of
challenging new destinations," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
said. "Opportunity's findings and data from the upcoming Mars Science
Laboratory will play a key role in making possible future human
missions to Mars and other places where humans have not yet been."

Endeavour crater, which is more than 25 times wider than Victoria
crater, is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. At Endeavour,
scientists expect to see much older rocks and terrains than those
examined by Opportunity during its first seven years on Mars.
Endeavour became a tantalizing destination after NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter detected clay minerals that may have formed in
an early warmer and wetter period.

"We're soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the
rovers haven't seen yet," said Matthew Golombek, Mars Exploration
Rover science team member, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
in Pasadena, Calif. "Clay minerals form in wet conditions so we may
learn about a potentially habitable environment that appears to have
been very different from those responsible for the rocks comprising
the plains."

The name Spirit Point informally commemorates Opportunity's twin
rover, which stopped communicating in March 2010. Spirit's mission
officially concluded in May.

"Our arrival at this destination is a reminder that these rovers have
continued far beyond the original three-month mission," said John
Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at JPL.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched Aug. 12, 2005, is
searching for evidence that water persisted on the Martian surface
for a long period of time. Other Mars missions have shown water
flowed across the surface in the planet's history, but scientists
have not determined if water remained long enough to provide a
habitat for life.

NASA launched the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity in the summer of
2003. Both completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004
and continued years of extended operations. They made important
discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been
favorable for supporting microbial life.

JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. Imagery taken after Opportunity
arrived at Endeavour will be released on NASA's website and NASA
Television as soon as available on Wednesday. For more information
about the rover and a color image as it approached the crater, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
        
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Received on Wed 10 Aug 2011 01:29:43 PM PDT